W O R L D

Pakistan army takes over Daggar
Pakistani troops seized control of Buner's district headquarters Daggar on Wednesday morning after a nightlong operation that left 50 militants and a soldier dead. According to the Pakistan army, airborne forces landed in Daggar at 8 am today and linked up to the (embattled) police and Frontier Constabulary’ there. “A link up with ground forces is in progress,” an army spokesman told reporters here.

• Taliban issues warning to scribes

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Pedestrians walk past posters that accuse British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Norweigan politician Eric Solheim of aiding the Tamil Tiger rebels, on a main street in central Colombo on Wednesday. — Reuters

Assitant agrarian technician Katja Meindl poses with some human saliva samples during the analysis for swine flu virus at an institute in Oberschleissheim near Munich, southern Germany, on Wednesday. Germany’s inflectious diseases agency found swine flu in a man and a woman in their late 30s in Bavaria, and a  22-year-old woman in Hamburg at the other end of the country all of whom had recently returned from Mexico — Reuters

Lankan navy foils Sea Tiger attack; 25 rebels dead
Colombo, April 29
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UK, France press for ceasefire, Lanka says no
Colombo, April 29 
British and French Foreign Ministers today appealed for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka's north, but Colombo turned it down saying it will not serve any purpose as "two pauses" offered by it earlier did not help the civilians to come out of the war zone.

Kalam outlines blueprint for prosperous India
New York, April 29
Former Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam has a four-point plan for bringing prosperity to India’s billion plus people through free flow of information across agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors.

Missing planets suggest stars ‘eat’their young
London, April 29
Stars “eat” the exoplanets that venture near them, say astronomers. Two new studies have revealed that the exoplanets are doomed to premature deaths even before they could get close to be ripped apart by the host stars' gravity, a finding that may help explain why few exoplanets are found next to host stars. 

 

Pakistan army takes over Daggar
50 militants, one soldier killed
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad

According to the Pakistan army, airborne forces landed in Daggar at 8 am today and linked up to the (embattled) police and Frontier Constabulary’ there. “A link up with ground forces is in progress,” an army spokesman told reporters here.

Taliban issues warning to scribes Islamabad:Taliban have now turned their guns on the journalists warning them of dire consequences if they do not project them in proper light and asked them stop their propaganda against militants. Accusing the media of Western and American bias, the Taliban in a pamphlet circulated yesterday to newspapers and TV channels’ offices in Mingora, the main city in Swat, asked journalists to review their role and avoid following “an anti-Taliban agenda”. — PTI

The militants continue to control three major police stations in Buner: Sultanwah, Ambela and Pir Baba's Mazar. The region is about 60 miles north-west of Islamabad and the Taliban had run over it early this month, thereby sending shockwaves within and abroad about the advancing Taliban. The military estimates that some 500 well-equipped, armed and trained militants were present in the area.

Backed up by gunships, the troops were continuing the operation to clear Buner of the militants, the spokesman said. “Presently, they are trying to secure the Ambela area where the militants are putting up stiff resistance."

Taliban fighters, the army said, held the entrances to the valley but they risk being caught between security forces at their front and rear after the successful airdrop that was conducted after imposing curfew in Daggar. The residents saw troops rappel down ropes from helicopters outside Daggar, the main town in Buner, while firing and explosions were also heard intermittently. The military said it might take a week to clear the militants out.

At least 70 personnel of police and the Frontier Constabulary, confirmed the army spokesman, had been taken hostage by Taliban in Buner’s Pir Baba area as security forces launched the operation in the district on Tuesday and pounded suspected militant hideouts in some of its border areas. He said 18 hostages had been released.

Notably, the army launched an offensive to flush out Taliban who had entered Buner on April 4 from Swat. They took control of the district a week later. They faked withdrawal last week following negotiations led by Sufi Mohammad, chief of the banned Tanzeeme Nifaz Shariah Mohammadi (TNSM), but spread out in the area intercepting supplies to security forces and kidnapping many personnel.

The spokesman also produced two captured young militants, one of whom belonged to an African country while the other had come from Karachi. Both said they were brainwashed to become suicide bombers “in order to go to paradise”.

Punjab: PPP to back Shahbaz
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad

In an apparent reversal of earlier position, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has decided to stay in Shahbaz Sharif-headed Punjab coalition, but authorised Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to work out terms of engagement with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the government.

The PPP also made a fresh offer to the PML-N to rejoin the federal government after all its members of the Punjab assembly insisted that the party should remain a coalition partner in the province. But, in a departure from previous stance it did not link its cooperation with the PML-N government in Punjab with the return of N-Leaguers to the federal cabinet.

The decision to again invite the PML-N to rejoin the government was taken in a meeting of PPP’s MPAs from Punjab. President Asif Ali Zardari, who is also co-chairman of PPP, presided over the meeting. 

Lankan navy foils Sea Tiger attack; 25 rebels dead
TV Sriram

UK, France press for ceasefire, Lanka says no 

Colombo, April 29 
British and French Foreign Ministers today appealed for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka's north, but Colombo turned it down saying it will not serve any purpose as "two pauses" offered by it earlier did not help the civilians to come out of the war zone.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who were here on an official visit, met the top Sri Lankan leadership, including Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, and held discussions on the current situation in the conflict zones.

The two leaders also prevailed upon the Sri Lankan leadership to allow access to international aid agencies to the conflict zones.

"We tried very hard... We insisted... but it is upto our Lankan friends to end the offensive and allow aid to the civilians trapped by fighting," Kouchner told reporters.
Miliband said their talks with Sri Lankans have made no "breakthrough". "We told the Lankans that truce is to help trapped civilians and not to help LTTE." — PTI 

Kalam outlines blueprint for prosperous India

Missing planets suggest stars ‘eat’their young